Steve Kerr has plenty of basketball drama around him right now, but his bigger worry is not the Golden State Warriors.
The Warriors’ head coach recently sat down for a wide-ranging Q&A with ‘The New Yorker,’ and the conversation moved from basketball to the state of the country. Kerr, who has never been shy about speaking on social issues, said he is deeply concerned that the basic promise of the American Dream is breaking down.
For Kerr, the problem is simple and grim. Young people are doing what they were told to do, then finding out the reward is no longer there. “There are millions of people out there, young people who are looking at the horizon and saying, ‘I did everything I was told I needed to do, and I can’t buy a house, and I can’t chase my dream,’” Kerr said.
Kerr Says America Is Going Backward
Kerr connected the issue to the old idea of upward mobility. “We don’t have what used to represent the American Dream, which was: you can do better than your parents,” he said. “We’re going backward on all that.”
That is the part that cuts. Kerr is not talking about luxury. He is talking about the basics: education, work, a house, and a shot at building a stable life.
He compared today’s situation with his own college years at the University of Arizona from 1983 to 1988. Back then, Kerr said, “If you went to school and got a degree, you could get a job and you could buy a house.”
Now, he believes that path is slipping away for most people. “Now that’s out of reach for most people,” Kerr added.
Student Debt And Housing Costs Are Crushing Young People
Kerr pointed to several reasons for the change.
Too many young people, he argued, are forced to take on student loans just to get an education. Then they enter an economy where wages often fail to keep up with housing costs.
He described the system as tilted toward “the very, very top one per cent.” The result, in his view, is a country with a shrinking middle class and growing instability. “We don’t really have a middle class,” Kerr said.
That is not just an economic complaint. Kerr framed it as a social problem that affects neighborhoods, cities and the country as a whole. “Think about what that means for the stability of communities and cities and a whole country,” he said.
The Numbers Make His Warning Hard To Ignore
The broader data paints a rough picture.
Median home prices have reportedly climbed from about $76,000 roughly 40 years ago to around $408,000 in 2024. Young workers earn about 20 percent less than boomers did at the same age, while student debt has reached $1.7 trillion.
Homeownership among people under 35 has also dropped from 43 percent to 34 percent. By 2030, some experts expect far fewer first-time buyers as millennials delay starting families or move away from expensive cities.
Kerr has faced criticism before for speaking on politics and national issues. Still, his warning here is not exactly radical. If millions of young Americans feel they followed the rules and still cannot build a life, the country has a problem bigger than basketball.
